Converts and Controversy

It is almost 30 years since my book Literary Converts was published by Harper Collins in the United Kingdom and subsequently by Ignatius Press in the United States. It was praised by A.N. Wilson as “an admirable book” and was listed by Conrad Black as one of his favorite books of 1999. It has sold well and has remained in print ever since its initial publication. As the author of such a book, I was pleased to see the publication of a new book on the same topic by the well-known British journalist Melanie McDonagh. Her own book has the briefest of titles, Converts, and a convoluted subtitled: “From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century.”

Upon an initial perusal of Mrs. McDonagh’s book, I was perplexed by the failure to reference my book at all. It seems implausible, if Mrs. McDonagh has been diligent in her research, that she does not know of it. It seems likely, therefore, that she chose to ignore it.

My suspicions aroused, I duly noted that my other books on the converts she covers in her book are also ignored. There is no reference to my biography of Chesterton, published in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton, nor of my book The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, published in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins. I am, however, in very good company. Most of the best books written on the converts on whom Mrs. McDonagh focuses are similarly ignored.

On my shelves are biographies of Chesterton by a range of authors, none of whom are mentioned in Converts. Some of these are a little obscure, to be sure, but it’s hard to fathom why good recent biographies by Ian Ker and William Oddie are overlooked. It’s also odd that Fr. Ker’s groundbreaking scholarship on St. John Henry Newman is entirely absent; and similarly and singularly odd is the absence of the many works on Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist, who is indubitably the premier authority on Chesterton over the past two decades or more. As for Evelyn Waugh, it is intriguing that Selina Hastings’ biography of him is referenced but that Douglas Lane Patey’s is not. The former is very well researched but is unsympathetic to Waugh’s religion, ignoring or downplaying its importance, whereas Patey’s excellent biography places Waugh’s faith at the center of his life, which is where Waugh himself placed it.

With these curious omissions in mind, and my suspicions aroused, I began reading Converts with an eye to critiquing its approach. As I turned the pages, I found myself highlighting passage after passage which seemed worthy of comment, either in praise or criticism. There was no way that these observations could be incorporated simply in a book review. I would need to write a series of articles, which would serve as a sort of companion to Mrs. McDonagh’s book for those who desire a clearer understanding of the fascinating conversion stories that she presents. This is, therefore, the first in a series of reflections on Converts in which I plan to comment upon the way that Mrs. McDonagh discusses a host of writers who converted to the Faith, such as St. John Henry Newman, Oscar Wilde, R.H. Benson, G.K. Chesterton, Maurice Baring, Evelyn Waugh, and Graham Greene.

As I embark upon this “companion” to Mrs. McDonagh’s Converts, I can’t help but be reminded of Hilaire Belloc’s writing of a “companion” to H.G. Wells’ bestselling The Outline of History. After Belloc published his “Companion,” Wells responded with a book titled Mr. Belloc Objects, to which Belloc, never one to miss the opportunity to have the last word, responded with a further riposte titled Mr. Belloc Still Objects. The exchange between Wells and Belloc became somewhat vituperative, which is something that I wish to avoid at all costs. I seek, rather, to emulate Chesterton’s own response to Wells’ Outline of History, which came in the form of his writing The Everlasting Man, an alternative outline of history rooted in Christian philosophy and theology. My aim will be to avoid Belloc’s bellicosity and to aspire toward Chestertonian charity.

Indeed, I am reminded of one of my favorite nuggets of Chestertonian wisdom. Writing of his relationship with his brother Cecil, another of the converts whom Mrs. McDonagh discusses, Chesterton said that he and his brother were always arguing but that they never quarreled. This has become something of a personal motto, serving as an unwritten epigraph to all that I write. In the Chestertonian sense, an argument is conducted in charity whereas a quarrel lacks charity.

In the following series of reflections on “Converts and Controversy,” the aim will be the attainment of clarity in charity. In discussing the strengths and weaknesses of Mrs. McDonagh’s Converts, we will come closer to a better and truer understanding of the great Catholic cultural revival of the 20th century, in which many literary giants embraced the timeless truths of the Catholic Faith.